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US 11,081,855 B2Granted
Laser-MOPA with burst-mode control
AssigneeCoherent, Inc.
InventorGregory Dumond
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A laser master-oscillator power-amplifier (MOPA) is operated to provide successive bursts of ultrashort pulses. The pulse-bursts are selected by an optical modulator from a pulse train delivered by the master oscillator prior to amplification in the power amplifier. The optical modulator has a selectively variable transmission specified by an analog voltage signal having a stepped waveform. The voltage signal is delivered by a sequentially-switched parallel switch-array connected in parallel with a parallel DAC having multiple parallel DC voltage outputs corresponding to steps of the stepped waveform.
Claims20
Optical apparatus, comprising:
- a pulsed seed laser generating a train of seed pulses having a pulse repetition frequency;
- an optical modulator arranged to receive the train of seed pulses from the pulsed seed laser and to form a burst of seed pulses by selecting a plurality of consecutive seed pulses from the train of seed pulses, the optical modulator having an optical transmission specified by an analog modulation signal having a stepped waveform;
- an optical amplifier arranged to receive the burst of seed pulses from the optical modulator and to amplify the seed pulses;
- a parallel digital-to-analog converter having a plurality of output channels providing direct-current voltages that correspond to voltage steps of the stepped waveform;
- and
- a parallel switch-array connected in parallel with the output channels of the parallel digital-to-analog converter and arranged to deliver the analog modulation signal to the optical modulator;
- wherein the stepped waveform is formed by sequential switching of the parallel switch-array between the output channels of the parallel digital-to-analog converter.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.